Cooktop appliances typically can include a variety of configurations. As an example, cooktop appliances may use a glass and/or ceramic-glass cooking panel for supporting cooking utensils. For such cooktop appliances, the heating sources can include, e.g., radiant, induction, and gas on glass. A variety of controls can be provided for the heating sources such as, e.g., traditional rotatable knobs and/or electronic types that rely on sensitivity to a user's touch. These controls may be provided as part of a user interface assembly for controlling various operations of the cooktop appliance.
Such user interface assemblies may use a variety of lighted features, such as, e.g., text, digits, and/or symbols, to display information to a user of the cooktop appliance on the surface of the cooktop appliance. For example, the upper surface of the cooking panel may include a user interface area where the controls are located, as well as where information such as, e.g., whether a heating element is activated or at what heat level a heating element is set, may be displayed to the user using lighted text, digits, and/or symbols. Some user interface assemblies may use multiple controls and multiple lighted features to select various operative states or modes of the cooktop appliance, such as the size and/or power density of a variable size or multi-element cooking zone of the cooktop. However, to improve the appearance of and/or reduce the space required for the user interface, it may be desirable to provide a control, such as a capacitive touch control button, whereby multiple states can be selected and information about the multiple states can be displayed, e.g., using multiple illuminated graphics or images.
Accordingly, a user interface for an appliance with features for displaying information about multiple operating states of the appliance within an area for selecting an operative state would be beneficial. A cooktop appliance with features for displaying a selected size, heating element, and/or power density of a cooking zone of the cooktop appliance within an area for selecting the size, heating element, and/or power density of the cooking zone would also be useful.